Switch Them On, Dad

You bring the boxes from the garage Every first December Sunday There's a knot that takes you twenty minutes And a bulb you mean to change one day I used to hold the trailing cable With my gloves up past my thumbs You'd say, "Stand back, we're nearly ready" And I'd run to get my mum

All the neighbours at their windows And your finger on the switch

Switch them on, Dad Let the reindeer fly Let that crooked little antler Make its mark against the sky Switch them on, Dad Give the street a show It's Christmas when you say it is So tell us when to go Three, two, one Oh, look at that Switch them on, Dad

Now I'm standing on the ladder And you're calling from below Saying, "Left a little, no, the other left" As if I didn't know You offer me the newer reindeer From the sale you saw in town But I look up at that bent old antler Say, "We can't retire him now"

You try to hide the way you're smiling But you're smiling just the same

Switch them on, Dad Let the reindeer fly Let that crooked little antler Make its mark against the sky Switch them on, Dad Give the street a show It's Christmas when you say it is So tell us when to go Three, two, one Oh, look at that Switch them on, Dad

You never cared who had the brightest Or whose roof was twice as wide You like to see us on the pavement With that whole house in our eyes Now I know why you kept climbing When the evening turned so cold It was worth a tangled cable For the way we shouted, "Go!"

Switch them on, Dad Give the street a show I'm down beside you on the pavement And we're ready when you go Three, two, one There he is again Our crooked little reindeer And my dad beside his son

Merry Christmas, Dad Leave them on